Friday, September 30, 2011

The Man in the Tank!

Friend of THOIA, Alex Grant, emailed me recently looking for an Atlas horror tale which turned out to be this masterfully illustrated Everett Raymond Kinstler criminal classic (and possibly the only story Kinstler ever did for Atlas), from the September 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #15.

9 comments:

Tmdess
said...

Love your blog!

I've always wondered if there is a pre-code comic considered the most gory, bloody, violent...I remember reading in Overstreet 30 years ago where it listed "excessive gore" or "perversion"..is there an issue that is really THAT over the top that it's still shocking?

The *other* kind, prof. grewbeard? :) And I would be interested in what tmdess is talking about; (not in *reading* it probably; just a "Guinness World Book of Records-type entry would be fine; OK *maybe a listing of the disgusting stuff; *but not while I'm eating, or for several hours afterward! Maybe that infamous one of the decapitated head and the ax?)

Again a beautiful presentation, dear Karswell!I myself am presenting four Atlas-tales in german on my german website. If you wanna see some really shocking lettering, look here...http://fifties-horror.de/lesewiese/just-crazy/der-mann-der-auf-wasser-ging-the-man-who-walked-on-water... and despair how german publishers gave it a try at handlettering in the 1970s. Shameful!

I like how the first page set up is all about how cosmopolitan city people can go astray when they reductively underestimate small town folk; but then the comic goes on to present the latter as simple-minded pokes who never do manage to accomplish a single thing in the narrative. And then later the bad guy is killed by a coincidence. Bet you city slickers ain't smirkin' now, huh?

I too was quite taken with the Ditko-esque face of the sorry criminal Pete Henry. It is the area between his schnozz and lips, plus the pencil moustache that does it.Well, the slimy little worm did it to himself. I just feel sorry for the folks who work at the depot who start to wonder in about a week where the dead cat is.I would really like to see the remainder of this issue as well. I am wondering who or what "the little monster" is, and as a former paratrooper, I am wondering about "Johnny's last jump."

About Me

Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES and DEVIL TALES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal collection-- except where noted.)

"...the capital of online comic book horrors... saying "Not the best story THOIA has run" is a bit like saying "one of Beethoven's lesser symphonies!"---Quasar Dragon

"...the object of all horror chicks' wet dreams... a comixkaze of awesome!"---Killer Kittens

"...an online repository of vintage comic fear fare where individual stories from long out-of-print issues are posted in high resolution, page by page. For a fan of EC, Atlas and other Silver Age-era comic companies, it is pure heaven (and hell)..."---Bryan Reesman (Attention Deficit Delirium)